If you want to stay above ground in New York City, then you better stay above ground, literally. Murders in the city\u2019s subway system are surging this year, up 60% despite an overall reported drop in the crime rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The troubling trend of killings this year has the city on a collision course with the 25-year high of 10 underground murders set back in 2022. How close are they to that number? As of September 8th this year, eight people have been butchered on subway cars or in stations, up from 5 during the same period last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a safe environment to be waiting for the train\u2026 It just feels evil,\u201d Jakeba Dockery<\/a> told the New York Post<\/em>. Her husband, Richard Henderson, was gunned down<\/a> back in January on a 3 train in Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n More recently, 47-year-old\u00a0Freddie Weston was shot to death<\/a> on his way to work just past 11 p.m. on September 5th at Brooklyn\u2019s Rockaway Avenue station.<\/p>\n \u201cThey took the opportunity because there wasn\u2019t any camera,\u201d Weston\u2019s sister, Tina, told the Post<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n While I agree that cameras can be a deterrent, countless violent crimes are caught on tape every year, making them a great tool after the fact, but that is too late for the victims and their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n A glaring lesson here is that no matter what regulations you place on law-abiding gun owners, criminals never seem to have any problem getting their hands on a firearm. Perhaps an even more shockingly ignored fact is that criminals bent on violent crime don\u2019t care about violating gun-free zones, magazine capacity limits, barrel length requirements or any number of piddly infractions relative to the murder they are willing to commit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Subway crime as a whole is said to be down nearly 6% this year, with robberies down approximately 18% and felony assaults by close to 5%, according to the NYPD. These numbers are attributed to high-profile initiatives in heavy-traffic stations, with 750 National Guardsmen<\/a> and an additional 1,000 NYPD officers<\/a> deployed underground.\u00a0<\/p>\n While I question how these numbers may be affected by reporting anomalies or fewer subway patrons due to the violence, the progress seems disproportionate to the enormous tax burden caused by such measures.<\/p>\n It feels an awful lot like government officials are creating problems through issues like illegal immigration, bail reform, prosecution-averse district attorneys and \u201craise the age\u201d legislation, giving those under 18 a free pass to kill, then throwing American tax dollars at barely effective bandages. This begs the question as to why these officials are so opposed to dealing with problems at the source?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis overall crime reduction is due in large part to thorough investigations by detectives into every major crime within the subway, and the proactive work of officers deployed in the transit system\u2026This year alone, those very officers removed 43 guns and 1,536 knives from the subway system, the highest weapons seizure rates in the last decade,\u201d according to an NYPD spokesperson.<\/p>\n Sounds great, but how many of these firearms and knives were confiscated from actual criminals versus the number taken from law-abiding citizens desperately clinging to any means of self-defense in the increasingly violent landscape? This brings me to my next evident observation. Criminals have a keen understanding that the government itself has removed a major deterrent to their evil plans when citizens are stripped of the means to defend themselves. Legislators have all but plowed the field giving the criminal element unfettered reign over the innocent.\u00a0<\/p>\n With violent crime increasing well above pre-pandemic levels, it\u2019s disturbing that New Yorkers and visitors to the Big Apple must contemplate whether their next ride on the subway will be their last.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t know if you\u2019re going to make it home\u2026 There\u2019s a lot of mental illness and it\u2019s painful to your heart that you don\u2019t know who you come in contact with, if they\u2019re going to push you in front of the train,\u201d said Vickie Reeves, a 68-year-old retiree while braving a rare subway trip at Times Square station.\u00a0<\/p>\n Between 1997 and 2020, the number of subway murders in a single year never exceeded five, according to NYPD data. Adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Joseph Giacalone attributes the rise in murders to an increasingly fatigued police force and transit officers, exasperated by greater numbers of law enforcement personnel resigning or retiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jakeba Dockery and her daughter say they will no longer use the subway.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t do the MTA\u2026 Between the anger, the mentally ill, I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
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